The Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk, Dvorák's favourite
pupil and later his son-in-law, was the son of a village organist and schoolmaster at
Krecovice. He was born in 1874 and at the age of eleven entered the Prague Conservatory,
where he studied the violin with the director Antonin Bennewitz and theory with Josef
Foerster. His chamber music teacher was the cellist Hanus Wihan, for whom Dvorák wrote
his famous Cello Concerto and who trained the distinguished Czech Quartet, in which Suk
played second violin until his retirement in 1933 and the consequent disbandment of the
quartet. In addition to his activities as a performer Suk distinguished himself as a
composer and as a teacher of composition at the Prague Conservatory, exercising a strong
influence over a whole generation of Czech composers.

Suk's Serenade in E Flat
Major, Op. 6, was written in 1892, a year after his graduation from the
Conservatory, and on the recommendation of Brahms was published by Simrock in 1896,
immediately establishing him as a composer of importance. In four movements the Serenade
opens with a movement of charm and lyrical appeal, tinged with occasional sadness and very
much in the classical tradition. This is followed by a more overtly cheerful Allegro and a
slow movement of greater intensity of feeling. The mood changes at once with the energy of
the final movement that brings to an end a work of remarkable achievement, composed as it
was by an eighteen-year-old, then embarking on an additional year of instruction at the
Conservatory.

Dvorák's own background offered less opportunity, though his
achievement must seem the greater. He was born in a village in Bohemia, where his father
owned an inn and worked as a butcher. The village band provided early musical interest and
training of a kind, before, through the help of relatives, Dvorák could be sent away to
school, and finally to the Prague Organ School, at that time a poor relation of the
Conservatory. He spent the first part of his professional life as an orchestral player,
principal violinist in the orchestra of the Czech Provisional Theatre, where he worked for
a time under Smetana. He was eventually able to devote himself more fully to composition
and was greatly assisted by the encouragement of Brahms, both by the award of scholarships
and the necessary recommendation to publishers.

Dvorák's career won him an international reputation. His
visits to England and the resulting choral compositions won him friends in that country
and in 1892 he was invited to New York to establish a National Conservatory, in pursuance
of the sponsor's aim to cultivate a national American school of composition. At home he
had, after Smetana, been largely instrumental in creating a form of Czech music that
transcended national boundaries, music that was thoroughly Bohemian in its melodic
inspiration and yet firmly within the German classical tradition exemplified by Brahms.

The E major Serenade
for string orchestra was written in the first two weeks of May in the year 1873 and
performed in Prague on 10th December 1876. It is scored only for strings and has for many
years formed a major item in the string orchestra repertoire. The first movement opens
with music of delicate charm, breathing something of the spirit of a Schubert quartet,
particularly in the middle section of this ternary movement. This is followed by a waltz,
with a more restless trio. The scherzo starts with a melody of great liveliness, followed
by a second theme of more romantic pretensions and a further melody of considerable
beauty, before an extended passage leads back again to the opening melodies. A Larghetto
of great tenderness and yearning, recalling in outline the trio of the second movement
leads to the finale in which there are references both to the Larghetto and to the first
movement. This brings, in conclusion, still more of the spirit of Bohemia, with which the
whole Serenade is instilled.

Capella Istropolitana
The Capella Istropolitana was founded in 1983 by members of the
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, at first as a chamber orchestra and then as an orchestra
large enough to tackle the standard classical repertoire. Based in Bratislava, its name
drawn from the ancient name still preserved in the Academia Istropolitana, the orchestra
works in the recording studio and undertakes frequent tours throughout Europe. Recordings
by the orchestra on the Naxos label include The Best of Baroque Music, Bach's Brandenburg
Concertos, fifteen each of Mozart's and Haydn's symphonies as well as works by Handel,
Vivaldi and Telemann.

Jaroslav Kr(e)cek
The Czech conductor and composer Jaroslav Kr(e)cek was born in
southern Bohemia in 1939 and studied composition and conducting at the Prague
Conservatory. In 1962 he moved to Pilsen as a conductor and radio producer and in 1967
returned to Prague to work as a recording supervisor for Supraphon. In the capital he
founded the Chorea Bohemica ensemble and in 1975 the chamber orchestra Musica Bohemica. In
Czechoslovakia he is well known for his arrangements of Bohemian folk music, while his
electro-acoustic opera Raab was awarded first prize at the International Composer's
Competition in Geneva. He is the artistic leader of Capella Istropolitana.